FROM THIS EPISODE

A Los Angeles ordinance limiting outdoor advertising contained the phrase "mural sign" and, bureaucracy being what it is, some 400 murals have been painted over in the past 10 years. Now, the City Council wants to make LA the mural capital of the world again. It's not just preservation, but new works, too. What's the difference between murals and graffiti? Also, California's Air Resources Board Chair Mary Nichols reports from the climate change conference in South Africa, and there's big money for baseball in Southern California. On our rebroadcast of today's To the Point, has the war with Iran already begun?

Banner image: A man walks in front of a mural in downtown Los Angeles, California. Photo by Gabriel Bouys/AFP/Getty Images

The Kyoto Protocols will expire next year, but no member of Congress made the trip to the UN Climate Change Conference in Durban, South Africa, where almost 200 nations are trying to hammer out a new international policy. But Mary Nichols, head of California's Air Resources Board is on the scene. This week, a court approved CARB's new cap-and-trade plan, worked out after former Governor Schwarzenegger signed AB 32.

Los Angeles was once the mural capital of the world, but in 2002, art on the walls of private property was made illegal by an ordinance designed to limit commercial signs, including billboards. Since then, some 400 murals have been painted over. A few weeks ago, we spoke with the graffiti artist known as Saber, who paid sky-writers to post the words, "End the Mural Moratorium: Art is Not a Crime" in the air above City Hall. He's part of an effort to restore a historic tradition. Now, City Councilman Jose Huizar has introduced a new ordinance protecting both existing murals and what are now defined as "original works of art."

Mitt Romney and other Republican candidates for president have accused President Obama of not doing enough to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. At today's news conference, the President struck back hard. Is Obama lax about Iran's possible nuclear weapon, or is he George W. "Bush on steroids?" We hear about what looks like a covert war against Iran and what the consequences might be, intended and otherwise.